Session Description:
This panel invites submissions that examine and reevaluate the supernatural literature that arose out of the British Raj. Exploring this area allows us to ask larger questions, such as: What is the place of Anglo-Indian Gothic within the broader genre of Imperial Gothic? Can postcolonial theory be used to interpret the colonial Indian Gothic? How is ghostly activity a form of native rebellion that reflects very real fears behind these fictional tales? How were writers influenced by the work of Kipling and why has his work dominated the genre for so long? What literary influence have Anglo-Indian women had on this genre?

In particular, this panel aims to explore how the Anglo-Indian Gothic was an important cultural statement on the anxieties that existed between the British colonizers and their native Indian subjects. The genre thus provides an alternative way of looking at the negative effects of imperialism and provides a place for subversive social commentaries disguised within an entertaining Gothic tale. Anglo-Indian Gothic writers offer glimpses into the British imperial world of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and their ghost stories offer additional insight for modern-day readers about the impact the British colonial presence had on the countries and peoples under the dominion of the Empire at its heights.

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Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.